Flat Classrooms

In the world we live today, ethnocentrism seems prevalent. Whether it's wanting to build a wall to keep foreigners out or sending a bomb into a crowd of people that worship a different religion. In today's technology rich classrooms, there are ways to open the eyes of teachers and students to embrace and accept the differences among the many people of our world. According to Julie Lindsay in the 2014 YouTube interview published by Future of Education called Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis on Flattening Classrooms, a flat classroom means, "bringing the world into your classroom and putting your classroom out to the world". I do believe that if teachers take the time to flatten our classrooms, send our students out into the world in a safe environment, they will be much better off then being confined to the 4 walls for their classroom.

Not only does flattening a classroom decrease ethnocentrism but also increases our students ethical and respectful aptitude towards those who are different than themselves. From the interview Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis on Flattening Classrooms  I can imagine the understanding and appreciating that takes place between students of two different cultures. Employing technology to communicate, children can have a better understanding of others and can eventually apply this to life outside of school. Global citizenship and respect for others will hopefully be part of the positive outcomes of a flat classroom.

In my own classroom, Skype is a tool that I've used in various ways to flatten my classroom. For example, my students have completed numerous Mystery Skypes with students from inside and outside of the US, asked an author questions about what it's like to publish a book, Skyped with Molly the Fire Safety Dog during Fire Safety Week, and interviewed children from Argentina about life at their school. I've also used Kidblog and ePals to communicate with other schools around the world.

Before the prevalence of free use of Skype, I used ePals and emails to correspond with another teacher and her students from Columbia. Students in my 5th and 1st grade classes would ask and respond to questions through email. Again, this was long before any of my students had their own email accounts, thus this was all done through teacher accounts. My students learned an amazing amount of information about life in Columbia compared to life in the US. I can remember expending on many topics from our conversations and the students being so thirsty to learn more about their Colombian friends. Together, we would write a letter answering and asking questions, then I would transpose this into an email to the teacher in Columbia. A day or two later we would read the email together and have conversations about things we learned and things we wanted to know more about. Over the year we collaborated with this classroom my students gained a deeper understanding and respect for people who were different from themselves.

Just recently I participated in a project called Adventure 15 with my 4th grade students. Although there are many events that students can participate in on November 17th provided by Adventure 15, we just spent our time communicating with another classroom from Argentina. This time around my students were able to Skype with the class. The experience was much more rich and deep because of the instant ability to ask and answer questions. Many of my students in this class had never been out of Iowa, so the abundance of what they learned from this 30 minute Skype was amazing. I remember having a conversation about the fact that everyone in that Argentine classroom knew 2 languages, one being English. This one fact seemed to not only mystify my students but also triggered a new level of respect for people who live outside of the US.

Mystery Skype

Mystery Skype

What we already know from our questions during the Mystery Skype

Skype with Molly the Fire Safety Dog

Davis, V., L, Julie. [Future of Education]. (January 16, 2014). Flattening Classrooms. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZuwIhjQvA

Ethnocentrism. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com online. Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ethnocentric?s=t

A 6th Graders Take on Creativity in the Classroom

For this blog I interviewed a student who will be entering 6^th grade this school year. He attends a small, public school district where all 7^th-12^th graders have access to Apple devices in a 1:1 environment. Since he will be just entering 6^th grade, he is drawing on experiences from mostly 5^th grade. What I concluded from our conversation is that he isn’t aware his teachers are coming up short when it comes to integrating technology. He believes his teachers are fostering creativity, though from what he told me, this really isn’t the case. I am trying to take into account, however, that he might not be remembering all that he did in 5^th grade.

The interviewee stated teachers foster creativity because sometimes he is allowed to decide which topics to research; they have leeway in the topic of research. As I dug deeper with my questions, however, I found the teacher(s) relied solely on Google products as a way for students to present their information. I asked if he ever used apps or websites called Prezi, Popplet, Scratch or iMovie, which he stated he had not. It seems the way his teachers allow students to be creative is in choosing their fonts sizes, colors, and pictures for their reports. I also asked if he could think of any websites or apps he wished his teachers would use, for example, Facebook. He said he was fine with the applications he uses and can’t think of one he wishes he could use.

From my conversation with him, I concluded that he doesn’t know he is missing out on opportunities to be creative. There seems to be no choice in applications or sites. It appears the only choice is Google Docs or Google Slides, which allows for a small amount of creativity compared to other products on the market. My interviewee declared his teachers believe creativity important, but I, personally, do not agree. During the interview I struggled with talking about being creative in the classroom with technology because he had little experiences to draw from.

The school district in which the interviewee attends has technology available to students. I am acquaintances with the Technology Integrationist for this district and I know she would be disappointed with the lack of applications being used in the classroom. I’m not sure if his 5^th grade teach(ers) were shy about using technology or if this is a problem prevalent in upper elementary. There is a disconnect between the skills he is gaining in the classroom and what creative skills he will need in the future, according to Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk (2007). I hope that when he enters into 7^th grade and has the opportunity to be in a 1:1 environment, things change for the better.

Robinson, K. (2007, January 6). Do schools kill creativity? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Spotlight on Strategies: Story Elements Soup

Using Smore, I created a flyer that describes how an elementary teacher, specifically a second grade teacher, can make learning and understanding story elements interesting by applying the strategy Story Elements Soup. In my Smore, I explain story elements can be compared to different ingredients in a soup, such as the plot is the recipe and the theme is the broth. Once all parts of the soup are put together, it cooks up a tasty (and interesting) story!

Teaching story elements addresses many Iowa Core standards including reading standard RL.2.IA.1 : employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension. Students need to understand how the elements of a story fit together to create a tale worth reading. Teaching story elements is also beneficial to a child’s writing ability; they can transfer this knowledge to their own stories. Once students see and understand how the parts of a story come together a students can apply this same idea to their own short stories.

Incorporating digital media not only helps a teacher meet a speaking and listening standard, but also provides my students an opportunity to employ listening comprehension skills. Also, using the website Bookflix, students are kept engaged in the book because it is animated. Another great addition to using an online book is that it creates an equal playing field for all levels of fluency. A student isn’t concentrating on his or her ability to read with fluency, but instead on his or her ability to comprehend and apply their ability to describe the story elements. Using the app Scribble My Story also offers my students the chance to synthesize their learning and provide evidence of their understanding of story elements. Within the app, students can draw, type, or even record their thoughts. I really enjoy using this app because students of any capability can present their understanding. As Howard Gardner states, "it is advantageous to develop multiple, diverse representations of the same entity..." (2008, pg 87). Students may be using the same tool, but they are allowed to present their information in any way they deem best for their ability and creativity.

References: 
 Gardner, H. (2008). 5 Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Iowa Core. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2016 from https://iowacore.gov

Story Elements (N.D.). Teacher Vision, Retrieved from https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/reading-comprehension/48783.html

Do Schools Kills Creativity?

I viewed the Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk on creativity in the cognition class I took last fall and it definitely resonated with me. Not only is Sir Ken Robinson a wonderful storyteller who uses laughter to engage his audience and make his presentation memorable, but he also states great many truths about our educational system. I completely agree with him when he states, “We have to rethink the fundamentals on which we are educating our children” and that we need to “educate their whole being” (Robinson, 2007). As an educational system, we are not emphasizing the whole child – we are very obsessed with teaching towards the analytical side and less of the creative side of the brain. To educate a successful human being in today’s ever changing, technology rich world, we need to enhance both sides of the brain. Creativity is not held at a high regard as does the ability to solve math problems or read with fluency. But as Robinson states, we know in our changing world this isn’t going to be the priority anymore and the educational system needs to realize this.

To make changes in the system, teachers need to embrace, foster, and advocate for new ways of thinking in their classrooms. We need to be open to students finding new ways of processing their learning. Robinson’s TED Talk reminded me of a presentation a colleague and I created for a technology conference. We titled our session, Cultivating Creativity with Technology. In our session we gave examples of different ways creativity can be cultivated. For instance, we talked about how not all students can just write down what they hear and think, some will remember the information better if they use apps such as Paperby53 or Skitch to doodle their thoughts. Of course augmented reality also popped into my head.

There are many great apps and websites available for students and teachers to utilize in emphasizing and fostering creativity. One of the biggest ways, I believe, teachers can have creativity come alive in the classroom is to allow students a choice. Because there is a myriad of options available, allow students to choose what digital media tool works best for them in the way in which they learn best. As Robinson states, “Intelligence is diverse – we think about the world in all the ways we experience it” (2007). According to the 2009 Speak Up report, students are asking for more ways to collaborate with peers. I can only imagine the creative thinking that could be developed if more collaboration tools were employed in the classroom (Project Tomorrow, 2010). According to Howard Gardner, the best creators are those who are not afraid to fail and try again (Five minds for the future, p.83). I think we can use technology to increase creativity by having students understand that it’s okay to fail and try again. On page 87, Gardner also states that “…it is also advantageous to develop multiple, diverse, representations of the same entity…” (2008). With technology, we can represent content through videos, photographs, games, etc. With numerous representations of material, students can find new and innovative solutions. This also reminds me of “20 Time” or “Genius Hour” in which teachers (and Google!) allow their students to research anything they wish. Students have tons of leeway in what they are looking for and what to do with their information. This also helps foster discipline and synthesis, which in turn fosters creativity! If we give students 20% of their classroom time to find something of interest and learn more about it, imagine the creativity they will bring to their future R&D department if students already have this experience.

In my classroom I try to cultivate creativity in my students in having a MakerSpace available to them. My journey to include a large MakerSpace in my Library has only just begun this year, but I have already acquired a items such as building blocks, straws, cardboard pieces, and much more including a MakeyMakey which will be coming soon. I find ways to get students utilizing the MakerSpace to have an outlet for their creativity even if it’s just a few minutes at the end of class. I hope to expand to include items such as a BeeBot and Dash and Dot.

As I stated, there are lots of site and apps available to aid creativity, but we must also keep in mind that students need to have a disciplined and synthesizing mind before they can have full creative capacities.

Resources:

Gardner, Howard. (2008). Five minds for the future. Boston: Harvard Business Pres

Project Tomorrow. (2010). Speak up 2009 - Creating our future: students speak up about their vision for 21st century learning - March 2010. Retrieved January 7, 2011 from Project Tomorrow Web site:http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU09UnleashingTheFuture.pdf

Robinson, K. (2007, January 6). Do schools kill creativity. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY.

Media Infused Learning Center

I developed a Prezi presentation that explains the steps in the research process. A Prezi, as well as other media infused learning centers foster a disciplined and synthesizing mind in students. In Howard Gardner’s book, 5 Minds for the Future Gardner lists four steps in creating a disciplined mind; “identify truly important topics or concepts within the discipline, spend a significant amount of time on this topic, approach the topic in a number of ways, and set up performances of understanding and give students ample opportunities to perform their understanding under a variety of conditions” (2008, p 33). In creating a Prezi presentation for the Big 6 Research Process I feel I am aiding my students in developing a disciplined mind because they are receiving information in various ways. The Prezi I created allows my students to understand the research process in different of ways – listening to me talk, reading the information on the page, and seeing examples. It also asks students to create a final project (of their choosing) that will showcase their understanding of their research.  Gardner also states, “while a specific discipline may prioritize one kind of intelligence over the others, a good pedagogue will invariably draw on several intelligences in inculcating key concepts or processes” (p. 33). The Prezi fits this criterion because I am utilizing the different ways in which students learn. For example, I will present the research process to the class showing examples and giving instructions. Then, students will be allowed to use my Prezi as a resource while researching. This meets another form of learning because the Prezi includes videos and graphics. Gardner states on page 69, “Finally, aspiring synthesizers benefit from explicit instruction on strategies,” thus a Prezi also fosters the development of synthesis because by using the Prezi to perform the steps in the research process my students are practicing synthesizing information (2008).

Reference: Gardner, H. (2008). 5 Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Link: http://prezi.com/pugmfdkcwrkq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Clipping Resources Using Educlipper

As I was curating my eduClipper board I started to realize how easy it would be to provide my students with various ways of learning their content to meet their diverse learning styles. I usually post links for research on my Symbaloo page but eduClipper is a great way to keep a myriad of resources in one easily accessible place. I chose to create a board for the Solar System because I have students research a planet in conjunction with the Solar System unit they embark upon in their homerooms. I typically just provide 3 websites for researching, but with eduClipper I was able to also add videos and infographics as well as interactive games. I even added a copy of their assignment! As my 4^th graders went through this project last year, certain students struggled with finding particular information for their project within all the extra data provided on the website. Using the videos and infographics, in addition to the websites, I know there will be students who will flourish with this assignment that may not have previously. Adding in games was something I thought of along the way. The games are a way for students to apply their understanding after their assignment is completed as well as a way to help the early finishers have something educational to complete.